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>Into The Mouth of the Dragon

>Now that we’re officially into April, it seemed like God decided that it was time to kick up the thermostat a little here in N.E. Florida.

Take today, for example. It was sunny – not a cloud in the sky, and 92 degrees (33.3 degrees Celsius for all you metrically inclined). After doing a full day’s worth of yard work, I decided to get out on the bike for a nice little 2-wheel action. I had plans to go out for a couple of hours – somewhere around 37-38 miles.

Only that didn’t happen exactly as planned.

You see, I neglected to mention that there was a little breeze blowing. OK….in all honesty, it was more than a little breeze. Maybe 20mph winds. They felt like they were 50mph. In reality, the winds were probably less than 20mph, but I’m no weatherman.

My route today was to be an out & back…so once I realized it was windy, I figured I’d have a head-wind for the first half of the ride.

One of the lovely things about Florida is that the wind seems to come from every direction. Or maybe I’m just a bad judge of direction. I’m not sure which is more correct. Regardless, I had a headwind the ENTIRE ride. Technically, it was a cross wind – which essentially feels like a head-wind to me.

So here’s the thing that was tough. I’m used to riding in a wind. I live in Florida, after all. What I wasn’t ready for was the effect the effort would have on me. I was unable to keep my heart rate down – no matter how slowly I went. No matter how little I worked. My average heart rate for the ride…163. I peaked out at 183. That’s just about my red-line. This was the toughest little ride I’ve been on in a long time.

I didn’t make it the whole way. I was literally cooked. The combination of the heat, the wind, and my pounding heart limited my day. I only made 20 miles.

Nothing like riding into what felt like a hair dryer the whole time. Better luck tomorrow!

>I faced the same kind of weather yesterday. Well, except the temp. I think the temps here in Colorado were high 40's low 50's. All I know is that when I was done my legs were shredded and my feet were frozen!